EAGER: Exploring Magnetic Communications for Challenging Environments

磁感应(MI)是指流经发射机线圈的电流在接收器线圈中感应出电流的现象，该电流与发射机线圈相隔很短距离，并且调谐到相同的谐振频率。MI还可以通过调制电流来携带信息。与射频(RF)通信不同，基于MI的通信可以提供几个优点，例如低能耗，能够在各种困难的传播介质(例如，淡水/海水、非铁磁金属、地下等)中可靠地工作，并且由于信号随着距离的快速衰减而泄漏可能性低。此外，由于MI技术对于高效的电力传输也很有用，它还提供了无源标记的可能性。MI技术目前还没有得到很好的探索，也没有商业电路板可以灵活配置进行实验。这个项目的主要目的是开发相对便宜的基于MI的收发板，并利用它们来探索MI技术在几个新兴应用中的使用，特别是在新兴的智能基础设施环境中。该项目将开发用于基于MI的通信的电路板，以支持对该技术的实验研究。这些电路板将提供对工作频率、线圈大小和工作电压的灵活控制。该项目将通过各种媒体对MI通信的范围、功耗、健壮性进行实验探索，以增强对该技术的优点和局限性的了解。它还将探索此设置中用于提高数据速率的多输入多输出(MIMO)功能，以及增加范围的技术。通过构建几个MI通信板，该项目将探索它们在几个应用中的使用，包括对生鲜食品供应链的在线监测和跟踪，智能购物环境中MI标签物品的自动识别，以及智能农业环境中的土壤在线监测。这些应用程序中的每一个都有一组独特的特征和要求，因此可以为基于MI的通信提供全面的实验评估。该项目还将使其他研究人员能够使用我们的设计和电路板来进一步探索MI技术，用于各种其他具有社会重要性的智能基础设施应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Magnetic Induction (MI) refers to the phenomenon where a current passed through a transmitter coil induces a current in a receiver coil that is separated by a short distance from the transmitter coil and is tuned to the same resonance frequency. MI can also be used to carry information by modulating the current. Unlike radio frequency (RF) communication, MI-based communication can provide several benefits such as low energy use, ability to work reliably in a variety of difficult propagation media (e.g., fresh/sea water, non-ferromagnetic metals, underground, etc.), and low leakage possibility because of fast decay of the signal with distance. Furthermore, since the MI technology is useful for efficient power transfer as well, it provides the possibility of passive tagging as well. MI technology is currently not well explored, and there are no commercial circuit boards that can be flexibly configured for experimentation. The primary purpose of this project is to develop relatively inexpensive MI-based transceiver boards and use them to explore the use of MI technology in several emerging applications, particularly those in the emerging smart infrastructure context.The project will develop circuit boards for MI-based communications to support experimental research into this technology. The boards will provide flexible control of the operational frequency, coil size, and operating voltage. The project will experimentally explore the range, power consumption, robustness of the MI communications through a variety of media to enhance the understanding of the merits and limitations of the technology. It will also explore the Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) capabilities in this setup for increasing data rates, and techniques to increase the range. By building several MI communications boards, the project will explore their use in several applications including on-line monitoring and tracking of fresh food supply chain, automated identification of MI tagged items in the smart shopping context and online monitoring of soil in the smart agriculture context. Each of these applications has a unique set of characteristics and requirements and thus can provide a comprehensive experimental evaluation of MI-based communications. The project will also enable other researchers to use our design and boards to further explore the MI technology for a variety of other smart infrastructure applications of societal importance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.